“I love this quote when Valerian the King of the Nymphs says to his mate Shaye;
"I am Valerian, leader of the nymphs. You may call me Oh God, that is what the other surface dwellers have preferred to call me".”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Nymph King
“Did you dream of me?" he asked.
"Yes," she admitted grudgingly. She had. She'd dreamed of his hands caressing her, of his mouth devouring her.
His lush lips inched into a surprised but pleased smile.
"You were naked," she told him.
His grin spread; his eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
"And tied up..."
He arched his eye brows in smug expectation. "I did not know the idea of bondage would please you."
"Oh, I love the idea of typing you up." She paused dramatically. "Just like in my dream, you'll be secured to an ant-hill and the little things will eat you alive.”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Nymph King
“You are the woman of my heart. The one I have been awaiting the whole of my life, though I didn't know it until I spied you. there isn't one thing that makes you special to me, but all things...”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Nymph King
“Loving someone gives them permission to do things to you because they know you'll forgive them. -Shaye”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Nymph King
“I'm trusting you not to break my heart. If it gets even a scratch, I'll break your face. -Shaye”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Nymph King
“Emotional entanglements are messy. And if I don’t get involved, I don’t have to worry about getting hurt. -SHAYE”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Nymph King
“Every resistance will be met and conquered until you've soared over the sweet edge of surrender.”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Nymph King
“what love looks like
what does love look like the therapist asks
one week after the breakup
and i’m not sure how to answer her question
except for the fact that i thought love
looked so much like you
that’s when it hit me
and i realized how naive i had been
to place an idea so beautiful on the image of a person
as if anybody on this entire earth
could encompass all love represented
as if this emotion seven billion people tremble for
would look like a five foot eleven
medium-sized brown-skinned guy
who likes eating frozen pizza for breakfast
what does love look like the therapist asks again
this time interrupting my thoughts midsentence
and at this point i’m about to get up
and walk right out the door
except i paid too much money for this hour
so instead i take a piercing look at her
the way you look at someone
when you’re about to hand it to them
lips pursed tightly preparing to launch into conversation
eyes digging deeply into theirs
searching for all the weak spots
they have hidden somewhere
hair being tucked behind the ears
as if you have to physically prepare for a conversation
on the philosophies or rather disappointments
of what love looks like
well i tell her
i don’t think love is him anymore
if love was him
he would be here wouldn’t he
if he was the one for me
wouldn’t he be the one sitting across from me
if love was him it would have been simple
i don’t think love is him anymore i repeat
i think love never was
i think i just wanted something
was ready to give myself to something
i believed was bigger than myself
and when i saw someone
who probably fit the part
i made it very much my intention
to make him my counterpart
and i lost myself to him
he took and he took
wrapped me in the word special
until i was so convinced he had eyes only to see me
hands only to feel me
a body only to be with me
oh how he emptied me
how does that make you feel
interrupts the therapist
well i said
it kind of makes me feel like shit
maybe we’re looking at it wrong
we think it’s something to search for out there
something meant to crash into us
on our way out of an elevator
or slip into our chair at a cafe somewhere
appear at the end of an aisle at the bookstore
looking the right amount of sexy and intellectual
but i think love starts here
everything else is just desire and projection
of all our wants needs and fantasies
but those externalities could never work out
if we didn’t turn inward and learn
how to love ourselves in order to love other people
love does not look like a person
love is our actions
love is giving all we can
even if it’s just the bigger slice of cake
love is understanding
we have the power to hurt one another
but we are going to do everything in our power
to make sure we don’t
love is figuring out all the kind sweetness we deserve
and when someone shows up
saying they will provide it as you do
but their actions seem to break you
rather than build you
love is knowing who to choose”
― Rupi Kaur, quote from The Sun and Her Flowers
“I lifted him out. I held him. I held that half of him.”
― Raymond Carver, quote from Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
“To glimpse one’s own true nature is a kind of homegoing, to a place East of the Sun, West of the Moon—the homegoing that needs no home, like that waterfall on the upper Suli Gad that turns to mist before touching the earth and rises once again into the sky.”
― Peter Matthiessen, quote from The Snow Leopard
“Salim,' She said, as if he were in the room. 'I'll have your guts for garters.' I has never heard this before and wondered what garters were. Kat told me later that they are what women used to wear around their thighs to keep their stockings up and they were elasticated. I do not think guts would be a tidy way of doing this.”
― Siobhan Dowd, quote from The London Eye Mystery
“In Britain I found things to be very different. I have yet to meet a single English person who has actually admitted to anti-negro prejudice. It is even generally believe that no such thing exists here. A negro is free to board any bus or train and sit anywhere, provided he has paid the appropriate fare. The fact that many people might pointedly avoid sitting near to him is casually overlooked. He is free to seek accommodation in any licensed hotel or boarding house - the courteous refusal which frequently follows is never ascribed to prejudice. The betrayal I now felt was greater because it had been perpetuated with the greatest of charm and courtesy.”
― E.R. Braithwaite, quote from To Sir, With Love
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